Wade’s four-year plan

Wade Phillips obviously wasn’t paying attention when the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl last month in Mike Tomlin’s second season as head coach.

How else to explain Phillips’ claim at the NFL owners’ meetings that it generally takes four years to build a championship team?

“Well, most cases it takes about four years to find out how good a coach is,” Phillips told reporters in Dana Point, Calif., this week. “I can tell you that. It takes about four years to get a championship type team put together.

“We were expected because of Dallas to do it one, maybe two years and we haven’t done that. I’m disappointed we haven’t, but I think we will.”

Trust me, Phillips won’t get four years to prove his point. If the Cowboys stumble out of the gate this season, don’t be surprised if Jerry Jones makes a midseason change. Phillips inherited a sound team from Bill Parcells and led it to a 13-3 record in his first season. Considering the bulk of the talent remains from that squad, there should be no excuses – barring injuries to key players – for not producing a playoff team this year.